Challenge 9: Turning Away from Destructive Systems – OneEarth.University

What if Sand Batteries are the Solution?

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 09:42:58 +0000

Using Sand for Energy Storage

Apr 27, 2024
Sand Batteries: Check out EnergySage! https://www.energysage.com

The future of sustainable energy requires us to be able to store the excess energy we produce. At this time its a daunting process at large scale, that’s where sand batteries come in. While they only store thermal energy, they might just be the solutions for home heating!

Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. The Verdict

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:51:30 +0000

Review of SMNR (Small Modular Nuclear Reactors)

Feb 25, 2024
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors are yet another apparently promising ‘silver bullet’ style solution to the Net Zero challenge. All the reliable, safe, baseload power of large centralised nuclear power stations but without the huge cost overspends and crippling project delays. What’s not to like, eh? Great on paper…but do Small Modular Nuclear Reactors pass the ‘sniff test’ in the real world?

Superhot Rock GeothermalAn Energy Revolution in the Making

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:10:24 +0000

from https://www.catf.us/work/superhot-rock/

Superhot rock geothermal energy is a visionary technology deserving of investment, and yet almost entirely unrecognized in the decarbonization debate. It has the potential to meet long-term demands for zero-carbon, always-on power, and can generate hydrogen for transportation fuel and other applications. Unlocking the potential of this energy source could expand our options and potentially carve a path forward to replace fossil fuels.

Superhot rock energy could support rapid global decarbonization

Click to download report (PDF file).

Scientists shocked by Arctic permafrost thawing 70 years sooner than predicted

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 06:30:27 +0000

From The Guardian — June 18, 2019

Permafrost at outposts in the Canadian Arctic is thawing 70 years earlier than predicted, an expedition has discovered, in the latest sign that the global climate crisis is accelerating even faster than scientists had feared.

A team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks said they were astounded by how quickly a succession of unusually hot summers had destabilised the upper layers of giant subterranean ice blocks that had been frozen solid for millennia.

“What we saw was amazing,” Vladimir Romanovsky, a professor of geophysics at the university, told Reuters. “It’s an indication that the climate is now warmer than at any time in the last 5,000 or more years.“

With governments meeting in Bonn this week to try to ratchet up ambitions in United Nations climate negotiations, the team’s findings, published on 10 June in Geophysical Research Letters, offered a further sign of a growing climate emergency.

The paper was based on data Romanovsky and his colleagues had been analysing since their last expedition to the area in 2016. The team used a modified propeller plane to visit exceptionally remote sites, including an abandoned cold war-era radar base more than 300km from the nearest human settlement.

Diving through a lucky break in the clouds, Romanovsky and his colleagues said they were confronted with a landscape that was unrecognisable from the pristine Arctic terrain they had encountered during initial visits a decade or so earlier.

read more…

A Texas town leads the country in using solar and wind energy

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 06:18:14 +0000

A town in the middle of Texas is leading the country in the use of renewable energy. Steve Inskeep, co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “Up First,” joins CBSN to talk about his visit to the town and how the push for renewable energy has affected the local economy.

Marshall Islands Sues Nuclear Weapons States

Sun, 31 Aug 2014 07:35:52 +0000

On April 24, 2014,
The Marshall Islands filed landmark cases in the International Court of Justice and U.S. Federal District Court.

The Claim:
The nine nuclear-armed nations have failed to comply with their obligations, under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and customary international law, to pursue negotiations for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.

They act for the seven billion of us who live on this planet to end the nuclear weapons threat hanging over all humanity.

Every one of us has a stake in this. (Link to petition)

August 22, 2014 Update:
The Marshall Islands files Opposition to U.S. motion to dismiss Nuclear Zero lawsuit.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) yesterday continued its efforts to compel the United States government to comply with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), asking a Federal Court judge to reject the U.S. government’s claim that the treaty cannot be enforced.

On April 24, 2014, the Marshall Islands filed a lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court, alleging the United States has violated its moral and legal obligations under the NPT by refusing to negotiate in good faith toward complete nuclear disarmament.

On July 21, the U.S. responded to these allegations by filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the issue of U.S. compliance with the treaty is not subject to the Court’s jurisdiction. The U.S. position fundamentally asks the Court to look the other way or, otherwise interpreted, takes the position that the U.S. is above the law.

Yesterday, the RMI filed an Opposition to the U.S. motion to dismiss, explaining why the Court cannot and should not look the other way. Click here to read the rest of the press release. To read the full motion challenging the US motion to dismiss, or to sign the petition, visit Nuclear Zero.